Public sector nurses and midwives in Lismore and across Northern NSW stopped work at 7 o'clock this morning, in a bid to send the NSW government a loud message.

Fed up with being ignored by the government, thousands of NSW Nurses and Midwives Association (NSWNMA) members statewide will walk off the job to fight for a 15% one-year pay increase. 

Many areas around the state are only stopping work for 12 hours, but the situation in the Northern Rivers is more pressing with the proximity to Queensland and the higher wages that working over the border provides.

The local NSWNMA branches at Lismore Base and Lismore Mental Health have voted to strike for 24 hours from 7am Tuesday to 7am Wednesday. Other Northern Rivers hospitals also taking longer action include: Tweed Valley Hospital, Murwillumbah District Hospital and Grafton Base Hospital.

The strike took to the streets, past Janelle Saffin's office and around the CBD.

Minimal, life-preserving staffing will be maintained in public hospitals and health services during the strike.

Lismore Branch President Penelope Anderson said, “New South Wales Labor has treated us with utter contempt throughout this whole process.  

“They've just sat there and stonewalled us the whole time. Nobody of any consequence, who can make decisions, comes to these meetings. Yet they say they are ”sitting at the table” with the nurses.

“It's absolutely disgusting.”

Just prior to the strike, Janelle Saffin said, "The nurses and midwives, through their association, tell me that they haven't had a substantial pay rise since 2008 by the state government.

"The Minn's Labor Government has removed the cap - that's a good thing. Now they're saying they want to catch up with the 15%. Of course, as a local member, I back them in their calls."

NSWNMA General Secretary Shaye Candish said members were sick and tired of being undervalued, overworked, and not listened to.

"The state government is not bargaining in good faith. Not once in our ten negotiation meetings has the government sat at the table and discussed nurses' and midwives' pay. That's despite us finding significant cost savings through our Rapid Business Case," said Ms Candish.

"Nurses and midwives shouldn't have to foot the bill for safe staffing ratios in our public hospitals and forgo a decent pay rise – there's no other workforce that's been required to pay for their own resources.

"NSW Labor was elected on a platform of gender equity and supporting women in work. They're now refusing to fix the gender pay gap and not deliver the state's largest female-dominated workforce fair and reasonable pay.

"It's clear the state government is choosing to pay nurses and midwives the lowest wages in the country, and it will continue to see our public health system fall apart if it doesn't pay nurses and midwives enough to stay in NSW."

Read here for more about the Rapid Business Case on the decline of nurses in NSW and the NSWNMA ideology to stop and reverse this from happening.